Sightlines · reception

How Together was received

2000 · Lukas Moodysson · Together on Sightlines

The arc

An arthouse hit on release — warmly reviewed everywhere from Sweden to the US as the confirmation that Show Me Love was no fluke — and its stock has only risen since, now sitting alongside the best films ever made about the 1970s left. The 2023 sequel Together 99 sent a new wave of viewers back to it.

What’s debated

Fans still argue over whether Moodysson is lovingly satirizing the commune's politics or gently mocking them — and whether warm, funny early Moodysson beats the bleak later Moodysson of Lilya 4-ever.

Its footprint

The porridge speech — people as oats in a pot of porridge — is the film's endlessly quoted bit, and the snowy finale set to ABBA's 'SOS' is one of the great needle-drops, routinely topping lists of perfect ABBA uses on film.

Where it stands

A comfort-film favorite on Letterboxd and a fixture of 'warmest films ever' lists — the humane hangout movie people press on friends who think Scandinavian cinema is all gloom.

Did you know? Moodysson reunited much of the original cast 23 years later for a sequel, Together 99 (2023), which checks in on the commune's survivors in 1999.